Soft, alkaline water source

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EMahn

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Although I am not new to aquariums, I am in a new location with tap water that is very different than I am used to. I am cycling (dosing with ammonia to 3ppm) a new 65 gal tall tank, which after an initial misstep is finally starting to produce nitrates (yay!). Soon I will be adding various community fish, and I hope to maintain a neutral pH. Right now it's fishless and a few small plants.

My source water (tap) is very soft 1 deg KH and GH and very alkaline - the pH reading immediately out of the tap is literally off the chart high on the API high pH test. If I give it a day or two it comes down to maybe 8.2 or 8.4.

I've tried to use a combination of Acid Buffer and Alkaline buffer (Seachem), and this is working to a degree. The KH is now 3 deg and starts neutral, but the pH is crawling back up a day or two later. Perhaps the KH should be higher? How high should I try to get the KH?

What do you suggest as the best way to increase KH and get the pH to a stable neutral level? I could add crushed coral/aragonite in a mesh bag to the canister filter, but I understand that this will raise the pH, which is the opposite of where I want to go on pH. Could I use Acid Buffer to counteract the alkalinity? Posts sometimes refer to using water changes to replenish the KH, but in my case that won't really happen since the source is so low. I will need to either dose with water changes or use something that leaches KH over time.

Thanks for you thoughts.
 
Tanks will run fine with KH of one so I wouldn't worry about it. The PH is a different mater. The only way to reduce this is to either:
1. Mix in RO or distilled water in with your tap.
2. Or using a DI water filter to reduce the hardness even further until the pH is near neutral.

Water utilities routinely add orthophosphate or other materials to the water to control pipe corrosion. These materials increase PH. Your tap water is already very soft so it probably won't take much RO or distilled water to reduce the PH.

One problem with high PH is many forms of iron fertilizer will oxidize and settle to the bottom and will not be available to the plants for growth. iron EDTA (good to a max PH of 6.5)and Iron DTPA (good to a PH of 7)will not work at a PH of 8. iron EDDHA (good to a PH of 10) is your best choice. Iron sulfate may work but I have no experience with it. So some fertilizers will not work well due to the PH of your tank and the effect on iron.

Once you have the PH under control I would put snail shells, or crushed coral to prevent your PH from dropping to acidic levels. These materials are mainly calcium carbonate which is a solid form of KH. 1/4 cup should do the job for years. No amount of KH will prevent the PH from increasing to above 7.

Another thing I would recommend doing because it is good for plants, shrimp, and snails is to Get Sachem Equilibrium and increase your GH by 2 degrees. Your water gh of 1 right now is low enough that it might not have a enough calcium, magnesium, sulfur in your water for good plant growth and shrimp and snails my not have enough for proper growth.
 
I agree with Steven, but would like to offer one suggestion with respect to increasing the GH via Equilibrium. First thing to know is what species of fish, and what species of plants you intend. Some fish will be better with the near-zero GH. I have this in my source water, GH is 7 ppm or less than half of 1 dGH, and KH is zero. I have had tanks of soft water fish for 25 years using this source water. The pH does become acidic, because the soda ash they add to raise the pH dissipates out rapidly. I let the pH go where it may, as the stability achieved in each tank is to my mind safer than my messing with the chemistry considering there are fish present.

I did try Equilibrium for a couple years, for the plants, and while it did improve them, I was still concerned about the fish. Most of mine are wild caught, coming from water with zero GH/KH, so I would just as soon keep this for them. I found that using the Seachem Flourish Tabs next to certain plants provided sufficient calcium (primarily) without my having to use Equilibrium, so I stopped. My tanks have been running now for three years and the plants are doing well. I also use Flourish Comprehensive Supplement (liquid) once a week, less than the recommended dose in most of the tanks. I admit this might not work for fussier plants, but it certainly can work.
 

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